9781422270585

suffer from depression. He often told others that although he had been able to stop drinking alcohol, he still experienced incidents of depression. Early in his AA journey, Bill W. became friends with a British philosopher named Gerald Heard, who also suffered from depression. Gerald Heard was familiar with LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and other hallucinogenic drugs. In 1938, a scientist named Albert Hofmann had invented LSD in his lab, with the intention of helping people who suffered from severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Although LSD caused people to experience unusual visions, early researchers thought it might help people with alcohol withdrawal hallucinations and tremors, called “delirium tremens.” Throughout those early years, scientists, philosophers, and others grew interested in LSD and its potential mental, physical, and spiritual benefits. Bill W. received counseling for his depression, and because he learned through his friend Gerald Heard that LSD had been originally developed to help people with severe alcoholism, he became interested in taking the drug. In 1956, Bill W. traveled to Los Angeles, California, to take LSD at the Veterans Administration Hospital under the supervision of Gerald Heard and Sidney Cohen, who were both LSD researchers. After only minutes, Bill W. felt better, but after traveling home, he reported that he felt “exceedingly well.” In his personal notes, Bill W. wrote, “I can make no doubt that the Eisner-Cohen-Powers-LSD therapy has contributed not a little to this happier state of affairs.” Following his first LSD treatment, Bill W. took LSD several more times.

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The Young Adult Drug Library: Facts & Figures